Quest for Homeland
by KatinkaDragonGirl
Summary: Keela is everything but an average girl, but she lives a peaceful life in a small village. But what will happen if someone tells her about the life she could never have? Can the young girl and her friends find a nation nobody ever heard about? Includes youtubers, but the protagonist is OC. No OCxYoutuber, maybe OCxOC in later chapters
1. Prologue

**Hello everybody!**

**I'm Kata or KéjDíDzsí (KDG), whichever you prefer :)**

**Urgh...this is sooooo strange, I've never done anything like this before :D I could really use some constructive criticism, so please tell me what you think of the following story :) I'm not English, so sorry if I mess something up**

**Oh, and by the way this is my first fanfic :D Enjoy**

Prologue

I felt someone shaking my shoulders.

'Kata! It's time to get up!'

'I'm tired, Ty, let me sleep!'

'But you have to get up! The sun's up already!'

'I don't care! I don't want to...'

'Fine, be like that, but I'm afraid if you don't get up now, Jerome and Mitch will come to wake you up...'

'Okay...' I sat up in my bed and heard my door closing behind my big brother, Ty. I really didn't want to get up to Jerome and Mitch. Once I was so foolish I didn't listen to Ty and those two who woke with the sun and loved to prank people poured a couple of buckets of ice cold water on me. Worst waking ever.

I think I should introduce myself, right? My name is Kata or Keela, why I have two names I'll tell you in a second. The most important thing you need to know about me is that I'm not a human, actually I don't know what I am. My body is covered in small black scales with purple markings that glow in the dark, I have a long tail, no hair, big, green eyes with cat-like pupils and little purple spikes running along my spine. I have sharp, purple claws, pointy, sharp teeth, the structure of my leg is similar to dogs' and I have a 6th 'finger' below my pinkie. Those 'fingers' are very long and between them, my arms and my sides I have purple wings I can of course fly with. I don't wear clothes, only purple fingerless gloves to protect my sensitive paw pads, but I don't consider myself naked. It would be like calling a chicken or a cat naked.

Most of my friends are humans, just like my family. My parents (I call them my parents, even thought they are my foster-parents) found me in the forest when I was around one year old. Ty was 4 then. Ever since that moment 15 years ago, they've been my family. I couldn't be closer to Ty if we shared the same parents. Everyone in the village knows me and accepts me. I am the part of their community. Me and Ty have a lot of friends, some of them live nearby or in the village, others live far and come to visit from time to time. I myself have never been to another city or village before.

I don't remember anything from my past. We've tried everything to find out where I came from, how I got to the forest or simply just what I am, but the only thing I could remember was the word 'Keela'. We figured it must be my original name, but I was already called Katinka (Kata is the nickname of that) by then, so I kept both names.

I checked my mentally accessible storage-space that we call 'inventory' if I had everything I needed with me. With friends like mine, you'll never know if you'll be just chilling around the fountain in the middle of the village, or getting lost in the forest or exploring a cave full of mobs. My iron sword and pick, some food and torches was all I needed and I had them.

I got up and left my room totally awake and ready for yet another amazing day with my friends. Little did I know that that day will change my life forever.

**So how did you like it? ^^ I know it's short (it seemed longer with handwriting), the first chapter will be longer, I promise!**

**Also, the main character has my name because she's my Minecraft character/skin and we share some traits, but she's a totally different well...person with a different story :) if you'd like to see how she looks like (I didn't describe her well) check out my deviantArt gallery (my username is the same there as here) I have a fresh drawing of her there :)**

**I hope you've enjoyed and please leave a review if you feel like it :)**


	2. Chapter 1 - The Captured Beast

**Hey, I'm here again and I'm bringing you the first chapter!**

**(oh, and also: the title is changed because the first one was permanent, I had a great idea and forgot it, I guess it was what the title is now but I'm not sure :) oh, and I'll make the cover soon too :))**

Keela's P.O.V.

I met Ty and a couple of friends of ours at the front gate of our garden. There was the completely immature Sky, who lived a few streets away from us and loved gold (he called it 'budder') more then anything else, the spaceman Jason who had a base full of computers, machines and other stuff we couldn't understand on top of a nearby hill and Mitch and Jerome who I mentioned earlier. They shared a treehouse in the forest and were known as the champions of the Hunger Games. While Mitch was a human, Jerome was one of my few non-human friends, but as opposed to me, he could wear clothes (a business suit to be exact), because baccas' anatomy is similar to humans'.

'Hey guys'. I smiled at the boys. Despite being at least two years younger than any of them, we got along well.

'Hey, me and biggums were just about to go and check on you', smiled Mitch cheekily.

'Shut up', I chuckled and playfully smacked his arm.

'So now that everybody is here, we should figure out what do we want to do today.' said Jason.

'We could just hang around the village and look for something to do', suggested Ty.

'Hmmm...sounds like a plan to me', agreed Jerome.

'Well, to me it doesn't...but I like the idea', I said.

'I conquer, I conquer', nodded Mitch.

'Let's go then!', Sky ended the conversation and started walking down the street.

We decided to go to the fountain in the middle of the village.

Ty's P.O.V.

We were sitting on the edge of the fountain, watching people passing by and having no idea what to do. Sky started swinging back and forth until he leaned back too much and fell right into the water with a huge splash.

'Oh shit...', he sat up in the water.

'Dude, now I'm all wet!', complained Jerome 'Do you know how long does it take for my fur to dry?!'

But Sky wasn't in the mood to apologise. Instead, he got up and shook himself, sending water everywhere.

'Don't do this!', I exclaimed as I tried to get out of his range alongside with Jerome.

Luckily he had no intention of chasing us. As I turned back towards the fountain I saw my sister standing in there splashing wildly and wrestling with Sky. She soon defeated her opponent, not only because Sky is a klutz, but because she's not an average human, she's pretty strong. She victoriously pushed Sky's head underwater, but the water-battle was not finished yet. Mitch jumped in too, trying to push her down.

'Hey guys, could you stop for a second?', said Jason who didn't take part in the playing or the fleeing.

'Yeah, sure', said Mitch like he wasn't standing in a fountain soaking wet. He put Kata down and climbed out of the water. We all went up to Jason and he pointed to the other side of the Main Square.

'Do you have any idea what's going on there?', he asked. Where he pointed people were crowding around something we couldn't see from where we were standing.

We walked closer and as some people saw us approaching, they started whispering into each others' ears and pointing at Keela. It had never happened before. As more and more people noticed us the crowd started to step aside and open a wide road to what they were looking at, exactly in front of Keela. We couldn't figure out what was happening as we slowly walked towards what appeared to be a huge cage on a chariot.

Kata reached it first, so she was the first to see what was in it. As she saw it, she gasped and I saw her tense up. As we all got close enough to see the content of the cage, we couldn't believe our eyes.

Keela's P.O.V.

When I saw and heard the people looking at me strangely and whispering to each other, I felt really strange. It was like for once they noticed that I'm different.

When the crowd opened in front of me I was shocked, but I was nowhere near the shock that I felt when I finally got to look into the cage.

On the floor of the cage, bruised and unconscious, laid a creature I've only seen before when I looked into a mirror. The creature's markings were differently shaped than my ones and they were light blue instead of purple, but he or she was definitely one of my kind – if a kind like that even exist, what I started to doubt less and less as I examined the creature.

I felt someone stepping beside me. I looked up and saw Ty, who appeared to be deep in thought. My other friends were confused too. Sky was scratching his head, Mitch was looking back and forth between me and the creature in the cage confused, Jerome just stared at the cage like he didn't even see it and Jason was looking around to find any clue about what was going on. He finally turned to a man standing nearby. We all gathered around the man as Jason asked him.

'Sir, can you tell me what happened?'

'Sure, young man. About half an hour ago two strange men with armour and weapons stopped here with this chariot. They said they caught this beast in the forest, but they don't need it and they want to sell it. Someone told the mayor and he bought this poor fella along with the chariot and the cage. After that the hunters rode away on their horses and the mayor left too, no-one knows where to.'

'Did the mayor say what will happen to this creature?', asked Ty nervously.

'No, he didn't. I'm sorry, that's all I know.'

'Thank you', said Jason and we left the man.

We stood in a circle and nobody said a word, but the boys were all shooting me concerned and confused looks. I felt strange. Something I thought would be impossible happened: I see one of my kind, but not flying freely, living happy life, but being beaten up, lying in a cage helplessly.

'Khm...excuse me, young ones, my I have a word with you?', we heard from behind me. I turned around and saw our mayor. He was plumpy, had glasses and a moustache, and was known for being generous, kind and knowing everyone in the village by name and he did everything for his people.

He signalled us to follow him and he led us to his office in the town hall.

'Take a seat, don't be shy, make yourself at home.', he said as he sat down in his own armchair.

After everyone made themselves comfortable, he sighed.

'I think you guessed that I didn't plan showing our new...well, 'friend' to you like this.' he shook his head for emphasis. 'I guess you already know what happened on the Main Square. I know how bad it sounds, but I bought the cage and its resident. And now...honestly, I don't know what to do...No-one had ever seen a creature like this aside from you, Katinka...Maybe you know what we should do about this whole situation...'

'I...I want to help that creature...' I said slowly and quietly.

'I knew you would say that', the mayor smiled. 'But how are you planning to do that? I don't think they will be happy to wake up in a cage, surrounded by humans. They must be scared and hurt, and may try to escape before you can help or befriend them.'

'I...I don't know...I just want to help...'

Everyone appeared to be thinking. The situation was serious and the stakes were high.

'You know what?' Jerome raised his head 'We could ask Jordan for a little help! Jerry's tree is far enough into the forest **(AN: I know Jerry's tree is originally in the jungle, but here it's not, sorry)** so no-one could bother us. We could build a little temporary house near the tree and have our new friend transported over there. I'm sure Jordan will be happy to help us.'

Jordan was another friend of ours. He and his cat, Cary lived in a huge tree he named after his sadly passed away slime friend, Jerry.

'That's a great idea!' smiled Sky 'But how are we going to ask Jordan, get his answer and build a house without having to keep that poor guy or girl in the cage for too long?'

'That's not a problem.' said Jason confidently 'Give me a minute.' and with that, he walked out the door.

'I wonder what's on his mind again', I mumbled.

'If Jason can ask Jordan and he's in, we're set. Or at least I hope so.' said Ty.

That was the moment Jason came back to the room.

'I talked with Jordan. He said he'll start building us a small house right away and he's eager to help.'

'Wonderful!' I smiled 'But...how did you talk to him?'

Jason raised his hand and showed me the little machine he was holding. It looked like a small grey box with some colourful buttons.

'What the heck is that?' asked Sky.

'It's a communicator I've made. You can talk with people by it, even if they are far away. It's pair is with Jordan, I gave it to him so we can test if it can cover long distances like Jerry's tree from here. Looks like it's working perfectly.', he said proudly.

'Wow dude...you're a genius!, said Ty with sparkling eyes.

'It's amazing indeed, but we shouldn't get sidetracked.' said Jerome, cooling us down. 'We should get going right away, right?'

'Yes, you're right. Come on, lets go.' I agreed.

We all said our goodbyes and thanks to the mayor and left the Town Hall.

Sky's P.O.V.

We borrowed two horses and with their help we got the chariot to Ty's house. I preferred to stay away from the chariot...I don't like horses.

We also got a tranquillizer injection from the doctor and used it on the poor guy or girl in the cage, so their sleeping will hopefully last longer.

We asked two other friends of ours to help us; Quentin the fish...I'm mean mudkip and Ian. We told them all we knew about this crazy situation and asked Quentin to go and help Jordan finish the house before we get going too.

'So I have to go ahead on horseback with Jason and these two idiots...', he shot an oh-my-God-what-kind-of-friends-do-I-have look at Mitch and Jerome, who were fooling around trying to piss Ian off but to no avail, 'and help Jordan finish the house?'

'Exactly, and also clear the road so the chariot can reach Jerry's tree with no problem' I nodded.

'Gotcha' then he turned towards Mitch and Jerome 'C'mon guys, we're leaving!'

The two stopped their previous (and kinda hilarious) activity and got on their horses like Quentin. Jason started his jetpack and they took off.

We waved for them a bit, then turned around and went back to Ty's house. Everyone had everything we would possibly need in our inventory, but we wanted to wait another hour to give enough mouse trip for Jason and the others to get to Jerry's tree and finish the house.

We sat down in Ty's room, but nobody said a word. Usually we would've been incredibly loud, everyone talking at once, but now everyone was lost in their thoughts. I just stared at the carpet and was about to doze off, while Keela and Ian were having a quiet conversation in the background and Ty was lying on his back in his bed, staring at the ceiling.

The hour slowly passed and we got ourselves together to leave. I've never been so quiet for so long in my entire life!

Instead of the borrowed horses which pulled the chariot to Ty's house, we now had Ian's and Ty's horses to do the work. We got on, tough I had some second thoughts about sitting on something that's moved by horses. Ty and Ian sat in the front to control the chariot, and me and Kata in the back, next to the cage and it's still unconscious resident.

'Hey', I turned to the girl 'You should be happy, you know'

'I know, I am...' she smiled 'it's just so strange...'

'Yeah, right...but think about it. When he or she wakes up and you become friends, it will be so awesome! You can get to know how your species live and everything...and we'll have two Keelas...I'm not sure if that's a good thing, but...'

'Oh shut up!' she laughed. Finally she looked like she was back to normal.

After a few minutes she stretched. 'I'm so tired of sitting!' she yawned then simply jumped off the chariot and started walking beside it.

The forest was shady, cool and thick, there were a lot of colourful flowers growing in the grass and we could hear some mobs too, but they didn't dare to come closer to us. Keela was cheerfully looking around while keeping up with the chariot and collecting some nice flowers. She always claimed not to be girly, she more likely collected everything that was new to her or she found it decorative (and most of them weren't butter for a strange reason), so her inventory was usually full before time. After an hour or so she became tired and climbed back on. The hours of travelling didn't seem as long as the hour waiting. We were talking about everything and having a good time, even fighting some mobs for fun.

After about two and a half hours after we left, we could see a huge jungle tree in front of us: Jerry's tree.

We stopped the chariot beside a small but nice house and we could see four big and one small figure dashing down the tree and towards us.

We happily greeted our friends. Jordan was happy to see us and help and Cary was purring and rubbing against our legs until Kata picked her up and started petting her.

'It's nice to see you again guys', smiled Jordan. 'I hope you like the house. It's not the biggest or the best, but it'll do, I hope. I have everything you could need up in Jerry's tree.'

We went into our temporary home. It had four rooms: one you arrived into when you entered, one with some furnaces (or should I say furni?), chests and a crafting table, a nice little bedroom with only one bed for our new friend, and one big bedroom with eight other beds, each having differently coloured sheets.

'I call dibs on the budder one!' I screamed when we stepped into the big bedroom. I dashed to the other end of the room where a bed..._my bed _stood with majestic budder coloured sheets, and I happily jumped onto it.

'The green is mine!', declared Ty.

'I want the purple one!' said Kata, who still had Cary in her hands. She sat down on her bed which was next to Ty's which was next to mine.

'The red one is mine!' screamed Mitch as he ran towards the bed full speed and landed on it. Without a word Jerome sat on the bed with green sheets next to Mitch's.

Without further loud activity Jason claimed the light blue bed next to Kata's while Quentin got the orange one opposite of me and Ian got the dark blue one opposite of Jason.

Each bed had a chest next to it. Kata put Cary down and threw all her unnecessary 'decorative' stuff in hers and then got up.

'I'm gonna take our new 'friend' to their room and maybe have a word or two with them if they wake up', she said quietly and she left the room.

**Here, I told you this one will be longer! :D**

**I hope you like it :3**

**I don't know when will the next one be out, I don't have school today, that's why I could write this one :)**

**I you enjoyed please leave a review, I would appreciate it :)**


	3. Chapter 2 - Different and Alike

Keela's P.O.V.

I went back to the chariot and opened the door of the cage. I picked the creature up into my arms – they seemed to be about as old as me, but they were skinnier and lighter then me. It took them to the other bedroom and laid them carefully on the bed then I sat down on the floor and waited.

I couldn't get my eyes off of the creature. Their body was covered in bruises and small scars – one of the spikes on their tail was missing, leaving an ugly gash behind.

I've been sitting there only for a couple of minutes when the creature started to stir. My eyes widened as I scooped closer to the bed, still sitting on the floor. The creature groaned and slowly opened their eyer which, as opposed to my bright green ones, were oringish-yellow, like the setting sun.

They sat up, looked at me then looked around in the room and looked at me again. Then – to my surprise – they started speaking a language totally unknown for me. Well, at least I could tell from the voice that he was a boy. I slowly moved to sitting on the edge of the bed.

'Sorry, I...I don't understand you...', I said.

'What?' he shot me a confused glance,'You don't understand your own language?'

'Wait what?...Was that...',I sighed,'Listen, I grew up amongst humans, actually you are the first one of my kind I've ever seen, as long as I can remember, so I have no clue about this language you speak.'

'I don't believe you. If you live with humans, why aren't you in a cage?', he said, disbelief and hostility clear in his voice.

'Because, argh...Okay, let's start this over. I'm Keela or Kata, you can call me both. What's your name?'

'Sorel.', he spat.

'Nice to meet you', I smiled and I meant it.'Listen, don't look at me like that, okay? I grew up between humans because they were the ones who took me in. They are my friends and family.'

'The ones who caught me are your 'friends' too?', he asked still hostile.

'No, I've never seen them. My friends are good people, they would've never hurt you.'

'Why should I believe you?'

'I didn't tell you to believe me!', I was starting to get nervous.

'Fine, let's assume you're telling the truth', he started arrogantly,'Can you tell me where I am, how did I get here and what happened to me when I was out?'

I sighed. This was definitely not how I imagined this moment to be. 'We are in the middle of a forest, far from any village, only my friends are here. This house was built so you can recover far from any disturbing humans. We took you here with the chariot the hunters took you to our village with. That's all that happened. Here no-one will hurt you, we want to be your friends.'

'And what if I don't want to be the friend of humans and their pet?', he spat.

'Did you just call me a pet?! I am a respected and loved person just like anyone else in my village!', I exclaimed furiously.'I'm the part of their community and they see me like one of them.'

He looked less and less sure about this whole 'humans are all evil' thing of his. He lowered his gaze and appeared to be thinking.

'I guess I'll believe you for now...', he said uncertainly.

'Good decision', I smiled.'So now that you don't want to rip my head off for saving you, can I ask you some things?'

'Depends. What do you want to know?' he asked back, still cautiously.

'First of all, how did you get into a sticky situation like that?'

'About a month ago I left my village to take a walk. A wandered too far and I heard something. I went to see what it was and I saw two humans. They saw me too, because they tried to catch me. I escaped, but they kept on following me from far. I couldn't go back to my village, because I didn't want to lead them there. I wandered farther and farther away from my home, the hunters still on my tail. I couldn't hunt properly for myself, so when I was weak enough that I couldn't fly away, they caught me. That was a couple days ago, I guess. My last memory is that they tossed me into a cage that was on a chariot.'

'I see', I nodded slowly,'That explains a lot...'

He was still looking downwards. 'So...am I safe here?' he asked quietly.

'Yeah, absolutely.' I smiled warmly.

He finally looked up and looked me in the eye. I was surprised but happy to see that the hostility was all gone and was replaced with curiosity and calmness. He sat up in the bed more comfortably and leaned back against the head of the bed.

'So you don't know anything about our nation, do you?'

'No, not really...',I mumbled.'Could you, please...ehm...' I couldn't really find the right words for what I wanted to say.

'Tell you about it?'

'Yeah'

'Okay', and to my great surprise, he smiled a little. 'I guess you should make yourself comfortable, there's a lot to tell.'

He moved his legs closer to him and I moved backwards, till my back hit the wall behind me. Then I looked at him with sparkling eyes as he started telling me about the life I could never have.

'First of all the name of our nation is Neranii. We have our own language, as you already know. Humans don't know about us – maybe there are some extremely old books and paintings that can tell something about us, I don't know. We live in the forests where no human ever goes. We have a lot of tales about humans, we know a lot about them and most of us speak their language, but we never go near them, because they would kill or capture us...'

'But why?', I asked.

'They're afraid of us or they think we are just animals and they want to have us as trophies. Because we are different.' he said darkly,'You have never been to any other village other than yours, right?'

'Right'

'So you're used to being accepted the way you are. Most humans don't want to accept, they just want to kill'

I looked at him with wide eyes. I've never thought about what would happen if I went to another village. No-one ever hurt Jerome or Quentin, then why would they hurt me?

'Please, continue', I asked him.

'Okay. So we live away from the humans. We have our own villages, but the houses are built on treetops and they are connected with bridges and there are platforms where the bridges meet. You should see one of our villages! They are huge, multi layered labyrinths of bridges and platforms and they are awesome!', he said happily,'All of us are black base coloured, but we all have different coloured markings. The young ones play tag in the air and we love jumping off of high cliffs and glide away, we don't have farms, we eat what the forest gives us. We never kill or take more than necessary. But in most ways we are similar to humans: we live in families, we have a leader of the village who you would call mayor, we live as long as humans, we play our own games, we have books and paintings, we use weapons and tools, we mine, we explore and we build. We don't have cats and dogs, because they couldn't follow us and we don't have horses, because we are faster than them and we couldn't ride them anyway. We don't wear armour or clothes either.'

I was speechless. 'Wow', I whispered.

We just sat there in silence for a while. I was overwhelmed by what I just heard.

'Would you tell me about your life, please?', Sorel asked,'I'm curious how it's like to be a Neranii between humans.'

'It's not that big thing at all', I smiled softly.'I live in the family which adopted me when I was only a year old. I have parents and a big brother, who loves me like I am really his sister. I have many friends and we get into all sorts of trouble all the time. It's fun. In our village everyone knows everyone – so they know me too, and they find nothing strange about me.'

'I guess it's cool to be the only flying creature amongst your friends...', he smiled.

'Well I'm not the only one but it's still cool. Jason, one of my friends has a jetpack, but my wings are still cooler.', I laughed a bit.

'What's a jetpack?', Sorel asked confused.

'It's a machine you put on your back and it makes you fly.'

'Hmm...pretty clever way of replacing wings, I have to say.', he chuckled.

'Yeah, it is, but strangely still Jason is the only one I've ever seen using it daily. Humans seem oddly comfortable on the ground while I couldn't live without flying.', I said.

'They are strange indeed...', he smiled.

It was so strange how quickly we got from him being hostile to, well...I wouldn't say being friends, but being comfortable around each other. I enjoyed it anyway.

I looked out the window.

'Oh my god, the sun's already setting!', I said surprised.'Seems like we talked a lot.'

'Didn't seem that long, honestly.', Sorel admitted.

'I agree.', I got up from the bed.'I'll leave you some rest now. You could meet my friends tomorrow if you want to.'

'Hmmm...you know I never thought I'd ever say this in the case of humans, but it sounds good.', he smiled,'Seems like you may have changed me, Keela.'

'I'm glad to hear that.', I smiled back and went to leave the room.'Good night, Sorel.' I turned my head back when I opened the door.

'Good night.'

I went straight to the big bedroom without even thinking about having dinner. After I left Sorel's room I realised how tired I actually was. The excitements of the day wore me out.

I found my friends sitting on the beds in the room, seemingly waiting for me to return, so we could go to sleep at once. Ian was sitting opposite the door, so he was the first to notice me.

'Hey, Kata, did you find a new friend?', he asked.

'I guess I did.' I smiled back. The others were now all looking at me curiously.'His name is Sorel and he seems really nice. He told me how our kind lives and how he was caught.'

All the answers were like 'Cool', 'Amazing' and stuff like that.

'So', started Ty,'can I, after 15 years, finally get to know what kind of creature my sister is?' he smiled.

'I'm a Neranii.', I said simply.

'Well, good to know.', yawned Sky and he fell back onto his bed.'Now lets sleep.'

Jerome, who was closer to the switch, turned off the lights.

'I agree, I'm tired', I said as I went to my bed and pushed Jason off who wouldn't leave on his own will.

'Ouch, that was rude', he whined and went to his bed defeated.

Everyone got ready for sleeping – looks like they were really just waiting for me. Ty took off his headphones and placed them carefully on the top of the chest he put his stuff in.

'Argh, damnit...', I heard from behind me. I figured Sky didn't see the chest where he wanted to put his sunglasses in the dark so he dropped them.

Everyone said their goodnights, except for Mitch.

'Mitch?' asked Jerome in the dark,'MITCH!'

'I'm asleep.' he mumbled back.

'If you say so...'

I don't know if their odd conversation continued or not, because I was already on my way to the realm of dreams.

**Here ya go! :D Two chapters a day...I need to slow down :D**

**I'll make a drawing of Sorel as soon as I can :)**

**I hope you've enjoyed, please leave a review if you feel like it :)**


	4. Chapter 3 - A promise

**Hey, I'm here again! :D**

**I know it's been a long time since I uploaded the previous chapters, but after writing that much my hand inflamed :( but I'm fine now, thought I had a great writer's block too**

**And the cover is late too, I'm sorry :(**

**Also, I had no idea of the title, so sorry if it's crappy xD**

**Anyways, enjoy :D**

A promise

Keela's P.O.V.

I slowly opened my eyes, but quickly shut them again as the bright light stung them. The sun was already up. I laid in my bed for another moment and let the memories of yesterday flow back into my mind. The fountain...the cage...the travelling in the forest...the house...Sorel...Sorel...

I shook my head, yawned and sat up. I saw most of the boys still asleep in their beds, however Ian, Mitch and Jerome weren't in the room. I got up, put my gloves on and headed to the kitchen/dining room to get some breakfast. Before I entered the room I could already hear the lively conversation of four voices. I stepped in to find Mitch, Jerome, Ian and Sorel all sitting at the table, talking. I was happy to see that Sorel didn't seem to be aggressive towards my friends.

'Good morning, guys', I smiled at them and I bent down to take an apple from a chest.

'Morning, lil' girl, you woke up early' smiled Ian, and the others greeted me too.

'Jó reggelt.' said Sorel.

'What?' my head shot up and the others looked at him surprised too. I recognised the language he spoke to me when he woke up the other day.

'It means good morning in my...our language', he explained.

'Oh, I see' I sat down next to him 'How do you say it again?' (**AN: I decided to actually bring the other language into the story, but I figured making up words and sentences randomly would confuse me and all the readers too and it could get really repetitive, so I decided to use a language most of you, my readers can't understand and will seem like a chaos of letters you know and some you don't, but I speak it fluently :) it's Hungarian, because, I don't know if I said that already or not, but I'm Hungarian :D I know you have no idea of how to pronounce Hungarian words, but you can always go ****on**** Google, or something :D)**

He repeated the two words, slower this time. I tried really hard to mimic him, but the things I said didn't actually sound like his words. After about seven tries he said I did okay and I was satisfied with myself too. I decided I wanted to learn the Neranii language and I told it to Sorel right away.

'Nice idea', he smiled,'I would be glad to teach you...but I warn you, our language is far more difficult than the one you already know.'

'Don't worry, I can deal with it', I assured him. With that settled I started eating my breakfast.

'So what did you start telling as about before Kata came in, Sorel? You talked about some kind of gem...', Jerome turned to the Neranii.

'Oh, yeah, the Night Gems. You humans prefer diamond, but our strongest tools and weapons – even the tips of the best arrows – are made of this material. You call it obsidian, I think.', the next moment a sword appeared in his hands and he showed it to us. It was a beautiful weapon: it's blade was black and dark purple – clearly obsidian, the handle was made of iron but part of it was covered in soft black fabric.

'No way...', Mitch breathed in awe, 'Your nation has found a way to make stuff from obsidian?', he quickly exchanged a glance with Jerome – it wasn't hard to know that they were both thinking about how easily they could win the Hunger Games with obsidian swords.

'Why is the handle covered?', asked Ian.

'We do it to every weapon and tool of ours. The pads on our palms are really vulnerable and they would easily be hurt by the hard and rough surface of the handles.'

'Oh I see. That's why Keela wears gloves, right?'

'Exactly', I nodded.

'Hmmm...I've actually never thought about covering my hands instead of the handles...' he mumbled.

'We could easily get a pair for you', shrugged Mitch 'If you're planning to stay amongst us for a longer time, it will be the easiest way.'

Sorel thought for a bit, than he smiled and nodded 'Thank you'. And with that, it seemed like not only getting him gloves was settled, but also that he will stay with us for a longer period of time. Great!

After that, we just sat there talking about random stuff and slowly the rest of our friends started to wake up and come to the kitchen. They all greeted Sorel friendlily, and I saw how hard he tried to put aside all the bad things he learned about humans. He still didn't have full trust in my friends, who were complete strangers to him, of course, and what was easy with three people wasn't so easy when a lot of people were around him. He started to feel uneasy. He finally got up and went back to his room quietly. I didn't go after him, I decided I'll let him rest for now.

Instead I went back to the big bedroom and opened my chest. On the way to Jerry's tree I found a kind of flower I've never seen before. I picked a few of them and now I picked the most beautiful one and put it into my inventory. I wanted to put it onto Jerry's memorial: I always took something nice, a flower, a gem, or something I found, with me whenever I came to visit Jordan, to make the memorial a bit more special each time.

I stepped out of the house, stretched my wings and flew straight to the branch that held the memorial.

I smiled as I looked at the grave, nicely decorated and taken care of by Jordan. I never actually knew Jerry: back when he was alive I wasn't allowed to come this far into the forest and Jordan didn't want to bring him with him when he came to visit. Despite that, I still came up to his grave and gave him something every time I was at the enormous jungle tree.

'Hey, Jerry', I smiled as if he could hear me. I did that every time. 'I got you a nice new flower, I hope you like it.' I knelt down next to the grass patch and carefully dug a little hole for the beautiful light purple plant. I planted it and made sure it was fine then I got up and turned to leave. 'Goodbye, Jerry. I hope you're happy wherever you are.'

Maybe if I knew Jerry, I would've sat there and talked to him, I don't know, but since I didn't, my visits only consisted of greeting, giving Jerry his gift and saying goodbye. But I did it each and every time, and I knew it made Jordan happy.

As I landed next to the house I saw a blue tipped tail disappearing in the bushes. I had no doubt that it was Sorel, but I hesitated whether I should follow him. Finally my curiosity won over my shyness, or whatever and I took off in his tracks. I hid behind trees and tried to be as quiet as possible: I was sure he wouldn't be happy to see that I was spying on him, even tough I wasn't. I was just curious where he was going.

I was cautiously walking a few steps behind him and he still didn't notice my presence. He didn't seem to be headed anywhere. Finally he stopped on the edge of a clearing and I quickly hid behind a bush not taking my eyes off of him for a moment.

He went to the lake in the middle of the clearing and sat down beside it, his legs and tail tip hanging into the water. I sneaked closer to the edge of the clearing. I hid half behind a tree, watching the other Neranii with big, curious eyes. When he made himself comfortable he did something that made me jump: he spoke.

'Come here, Keela', he said softly.

My heart just skipped a beat. He knew I was there! But I was so careful! Maybe I was too clumsy...I hid behind the trunk fully.

'It's alright' he said and I knew he was smiling, 'I'm not mad at you.' when I still didn't move, he added 'Please'

I sighed and emerged from my hiding spot. I went and sat beside him on the shore.

I hugged my knees to my chest and wrapped my tail around me. I stared the small waves Sorel caused by moving his tail tip slightly.

'I'm sorry...', I muttered.

'Don't be. I told you I'm not mad.' he smiled, 'I left to be alone for a bit, but I guess I could still use some company.'

Relieved, I loosened my grip on my knees and smiled too. He gladly acknowledged that and turned his gaze to the sky. I looked up at him and saw the friendly, warm glow in his eyes being replaced by sadness and the feeling of being lost. We stayed like that for a while, me looking at him and him looking at the sky.

He was homesick, I knew it. The way he looked at the sky that moment and the way he looked at me, like I reminded him of home made it obvious to me. I felt like my heart was a great boulder and it was sinking to the bottom of the ocean, where even the squids don't go. I sighed.

'You know...you can go home, anytime you want. You don't have to stay here with us...', I said. I didn't want him to go, I grew to love him even in this short period of time, but I knew I shouldn't hold him back.

He moved his gaze from the sky to me. He looked surprised.

'Thanks', he smiled a bit, 'for understanding. But I can't go just yet: I need to heal and get stronger and find out where actually my home is. And I can't leave you just yet. I promised you I will teach you our language and everything you have to know and I don't break my promises. And your friends promised me a pair of gloves.' At this point I was smiling too.

'But you do miss your home, right?'

'Yes, I do of course. I miss my friends and family, I miss my village. I miss seeing Neraniis around me every day and I miss flying. But I won't leave yet.' he reassured me and I believed him of course.

I thought for a bit.

'You know...we can easily help the flying part...' and with that I stood up and pulled him with me.

His face lit up when he realised what I just said.

'Race ya to that tree!', he shouted pointing at a big tree on the top of a nearby hill.

'Challenge accepted!' I laughed as I took off with Sorel on my tail.

'You cheated! You took off before me!' he screamed behind me as we dashed towards the finish.

'The race is not over yet!' I screamed back. 'I didn't win...yet!'

I won our little race with a pretty big advantage, not only because I started a bit before my challenger, but also because he wasn't in the best shape, he was skinny and was bandaged up in a lot of places.

'Okay, you won this time', he admitted when we landed on a wide branch. 'What about a rematch?'

We spent the rest of the afternoon in the air, chasing each other or just simply goofing around. It was great. Sorel also taught me some new words. We went back to the house only when we saw the moon rising above the horizon.

'So, how do you say 'thank you'?', he asked another from the phrases I learned that day. He was a great teacher.

'Kösznöm.'

'Almost. It's 'Köszönöm'.' he smiled.

'Arghhh...I always mess up...'

'Don't say that! You're doing great!'

That was when we entered the house.

'Oh, there you are!' Jerome smiled sitting on top of a table. 'Where have you been?'

'We were flying and...well, time did too...' I shrugged, smiling.

Sorel seemed nervous as everyone in the room (Jerome, Mitch, Ty, Sky and Quentin) was looking at us. He quickly muttered a 'Good night' and went to his room.

'So you were flying?' Ty asked back and I was surprised to recognise anger in his voice. 'Don't you think you should've told someone that you were leaving for the afternoon? All we knew was that you went to Jerry's memorial and then disappeared! You didn't think, did you?!'

He didn't even wait for an answer, just furiously took off to the big bedroom while taking an angry look at Sorel's door. I was thunderstruck. An outburst like this really didn't fit Ty's kind personality.

I slowly lowered my head. What have I done to deserve this? And now he is mad at Sorel too!

Sky came up to me and put an arm around my shoulders.

'Don't worry, he'll come around, he was just really worried about you.' he said in a reassuring voice.

'He's your bro, of course he worried about you! He just overreacted a bit.' Mitch added.

'Yeah, sure just a tiny little bit...' Quentin said sarcastically.

'Let's go and get some sleep' Sky said and I nodded.

We went to the big bedroom, laid down in our beds and said our goodnights. Ty ostentatiously turned his back towards me. Ian was already asleep and Jason was up in Jerry's tree discussing some technological stuff with Jordan.

I laid on my back and couldn't fall asleep for a long time from the thoughts rushing through my mind and I could hear the muffled noise of loud music coming from my brother's headphones.

**Yeah, not the greatest chapter of all times, I know, it still took ages to write, I'm sorry :((**

**Also, I will start to write a fantasy story soon too, but I won't post it here as it's a full OC story, but if you want to check it out be sure to keep an eye out for the prologue/first chapters and character concept art on my deviantArt account (same username there too) :))**

**I hope you still enjoyed this chapter anyway :)**

**Have a nice day and goodbye ^^**


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